Tired of the skinny of Asian motor shows? Yearning for something more substantial? Let the product specialists of the Sao Paulo Motor show demonstrate to you what’s hot in Brazil – car-wise, of course. This is the rear view of The Boss. Read More >
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Stephen Odell, CEO of Ford Europe, thinks that state aid of ailing carmakers is a dead-end street.
TrueCar, Kelley Blue Book, and Edmunds have submitted their sales projections for October. They agree (as far as they supply numbers) that the market should be up by more than ten percent in October, that Ford and GM will underperform, that Chrysler will continue to be strong, and that Volkswagen and Toyota will continue delivering stellar growth numbers. Read More >
The Chrysler E-Class— based on the K platform and built for the 1983 and 1984 model years only— wasn’t quite as opulent as the car we associate Señor Montalban with today, but it talked! Read More >
As expected, Ford is closing an UK plant. Unexpectedly, Ford is closing another one right with it, bringing EU plant closings to three in two days. Ford is closing its Ford Transit plant in Southampton, and it is closing the stamping plant in Dagenham with it, says Automobilwoche [sub]. Read More >
Brazil is now the world’s fourth largest market. With sales of almost 4 million cars, the magical 5 million mark is not a mirage anymore. Accordingly, São Paulo, Latin America’s second largest city and the economic hub of the country, holds the grandest of the region’s trade shows. Known as the Salão do Automóvel de São Paulo, the fair expects to attract over 750 thousand visitors.
Marking its importance, everybody’s here. From VW’s Martin Winterkorn, to GM’s Dan Akerson and Ford’s Tim Foley, not to mention assorted honchos with names difficult to spell from a host of Asian makers, everybody wants a piece of the bootylicious Brazilian pie. I can’t remember another Saloon in which more stellar members of the rarefied pinnacles of the worldwide car industry were present and making themselves so accessible to the press.
Let’s take a walk through the Salão and see the highlights according to this auto scribe’s humble point of view. Read More >
Playboy photographer Scott Hooper (of “Sex and the Automobile” fame) is planning a major oeuvre, a big coffee table book of sexy cars and sexy ladies, planned to be “the culmination of Hooper’s lifelong love of gorgeous women and exquisite cars.” Being in Las Vegas and being known in the business, Hooper has no shortage of gorgeous women. He has a shortage of sexy cars. And this is where you come in. Read More >
Ford is expected to announce the closure of its van factory in Southampton, England, Reuters says. British shop stewards have been summoned to an emergency meeting at Ford’s European headquarters in Basildon, Essex, today. Read More >
After my tirade about big fat luxury cars in the 24 Hours of LeMons, I got to thinking about all the once-boring luxury machines I’ve seen with brutal slam jobs. In so many cases— yes, even with a vintage Audi 100— dropping the Chairman of the Board’s luxury ride about a foot works wonders for its appearance. Read More >
Can’t bear the thought of another faux crossover? Too bad, we’re probably getting something like this when the next-generation Fit rolls around.
There’s a new small block in town, baby: keeping the spirit of the original 1949 Kettering OHV V8 alive. Piston Slap says the new name is sad: mediocre memories of the Optispark munching, reverse flow coolin’ LT-1 is not a fitting successor to the sheer splendiferousness that was the LSX. Vellum Venom says that the 2006 Ford F-150 called, asking for its fender emblem back. But what’s the real story? Read More >
Mercedes wants to double its passenger car sales within the next eight years. By 2020, Mercedes wants to raise its sales to more than 2.6 million units annually, from 1.3 million this year. This is what Daimler CEO wrote in a letter to all employees. Automobilwoche [sub] has a copy.
Read More >
Volkswagen’s ultracompact Up! is taking Japan by storm. Three weeks after its Oct. 1 release, orders for the up! have exceeded 3,000 units, The Nikkei[sub] writes. Read More >
Sales of Japanese cars in China dropped 40 percent in September as a result of the islands rumpus. The shares of Nissan, Toyota and Honda shares lost about 10 percent of their value. Chinese state-owned enterprises lost much more. Read More >
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